Many sports bettors out there probably took UCLA +3 or +3.5 this week at home against Stanford. Going into the final minute of this college football game, those people probably had a 99.5+% chance of winning their bets, UCLA had a 13-9 lead.

Well, with 25 seconds left, Stanford scored a touchdown to go up 16-13.

Great news for the Stanford football team and their fans, but those that took UCLA +3 or +3.5 were still fine (or, in the case of those +3 folks, they weren’t losing their money, at least).

In literally the final seconds, UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen steps back to throw a Hail Mary. He’s holding the ball in his hands with :00 left on the clock. And… he fumbles.

Stanford large guy Solomon Thomas picks it up. All he has to do is just go down and Stanford secures the win. But when you get the chance to scoop and score, it’s hard to resist the urge to scoop an score, especially when you’re a large defensive guy like Solomon Thomas and you rarely see such opportunities. So, Thomas ran the ball back 42 yards for a touchdown that for all intents and purposes on the football field is meaningless. Stanford had won the game either way. But in Vegas, this touchdown made all the difference for many, as it meant that Stanford covered that +3 or +3.5 number.

ESPN play-by-play man Chris Fowler even (indirectly) referred to the game’s impact on the betting world as he called the touchdown:

And the cover was most certainly not lost on the Twitterverse:

This may be the leader in the clubhouse for Scott Van Pelt’s top “Bad Beat” of the 2016 college football season.

[ABC]

About Matt Clapp

Matt is an editor at The Comeback. He attended Colorado State University, wishes he was Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris, and idolizes Larry David. And loves pizza and dogs because obviously.

He can be followed on Twitter at @Matt2Clapp (also @TheBlogfines for Cubs/MLB tweets and @DaBearNecess for Bears/NFL tweets), and can be reached by email at mclapp@thecomeback.com.

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